Juan Medina-Ariza

Dr Juanjo Medina received his BA in Public Law and a Postgraduate Degree in Criminology from the University of Seville (Spain). In 1997 he graduated with an MA in Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, receiving the Richard Hughes Award for topping his promotion. He obtained his first PhD from the Department of Criminal Law at the University of Seville in February of 2000 and a second PhD in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University in January of 2002. Both thesis focused on gender violence. His Spanish dissertation was the first survey on intimate partner violence in Spain and his US-based dissertation, relying on GIS and spatial econometric tools, explored the social geography of gender violence in New York City.

Dr. Medina has been working for Manchester University since September 2000. Before coming to Manchester, he lived and worked in New York working as a research associate at Victim Services and as senior research associate at the Violence Institute of New Jersey (UMDNJ, now part of Rutgers). He has also been a research fellow of the Andalusian Institute of Criminology (Spain) and the National Consortium on Violence Research (now defunct), as well as a visiting fellow at the Universidade Federal da Bahia (Brazil) and Heuni (Finland).

Dr. Medina has a strong interest in comparative criminology and criminal justice. He is a member of a research network based in Catalonya that studies crime and sentencing policy in Spain . He was also the Chief Editor of the official journal of the Spanish Society of Criminology from 2003 to 2005. Moreover, he also serves in the steering committe of the Eurogang Network, an international collaboration aimed at developing a comparative understanding of gangs and gangs control policy.